The MBTA Drives Off in a Hyundai

Who knew the MBTA was feeling so lucky? The debt-strapped agency has decided to buy a fleet of commuter rail cars from Hyundai Rotem, a company that has never built commuter trains in the United States.

What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, Rotem doesn’t even have a factory in the United States (it plans to open one in March). While the company has a strong reputation in Europe, experts warn that American safety standards are hard for newcomers to figure out. That, and the company is six months behind in producing commuter rail cars for the Philadelphia and Southern California’s public transit agencies.